RACHAEL Maskell’s joyless control freakery has gone into overdrive with her claim that plans for a Roxy Ball Room are “disgraceful”.

Our inner MP has only been here five minutes so perhaps she doesn’t know about the entertainment enterprises Fazers and Fibbers that operated successfully in Stonebow House before she was parachuted in by London HQ to push aside worthy local Labour candidates to occupy York Central.

If a Roxy Ball Room cannot be allowed in a building of this type in an edge of centre location like this, it is difficult to see just where one might be allowed.

This is primarily a commercial zone and residents who moved into the area must have known this before agreeing to buy or rent in this strategic location.

Indeed, according to promoters of apartments in Hungate, one of its main attractions is the easy walk to the city centre and all the services and entertainment that can be found there.

Matthew Laverack,

Lord Mayors Walk,

York

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Labour needs to fix 'deeply unfair and flawed system'

YORK Labour recently cut the amount of funding devolved to local communities to be able to address their own priorities (whether that is supporting local food shares, youth clubs or fixing local roads or pavements) by £600,000 across the city, from £850,000 to £250,000 this year.

This would be bad enough, however, how they have allocated the remaining funding rubs further salt in the wound.

Labour claim that they are allocating £145,000 of the remaining £250,000 on the basis of 'need' - defined by each ward's 'Index of Multiple Deprivation'.

However, they have forgotten that wards have different populations, making a mockery of the claim to fairness and breaking the supposed link with deprivation.

For example, Haxby & Wigginton ward has a population of about 12,000, whereas Bishopthorpe ward has a population of about 4,000 - a third the size.

Bishopthorpe, under Labour's new system, now receives £3,953 each year of this element of funding, whereas Haxby and Wigginton receives £3,533 - despite them having similar average deprivation scores (5.87 and 5.25 respectively).

This means that Haxby and Wigginton's residents receive 29p each towards addressing local issues, whereas Bishopthorpe residents receive about £1. Adding the remaining funding, which is allocated proportionally, takes these totals to 85p and £1.55.

This is a deeply unfair and flawed system that must be fixed (preferably by a return to the previous Lib Dem system which allocated about £4.50 per person to solve local concerns).

Andrew Hollyer

Liberal Democrat Councillor Haxby & Wigginton Ward

Oak Tree Court,

Haxby, York

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Tanks for the memory

A NEWSPAPER report quoted on BBC Radio 4 claimed that the British Army boasted fewer tanks than Switzerland or Madagascar.

I don’t know how our order of battle has been affected by supplying armour and weaponry to perpetuate the attritional stalemate in Ukraine.

The USA, ourselves and others have provided Ukraine with billions of pounds worth of hardware, though never quite enough. Even so, if accurate, it’s a bit of an eye-opener to learn of our modest inventory in the tank department.

What’s happened to the Army? Is it a case of ‘tanks for the memory’? And don’t get me started on the RAF. Biggles would be mortified! I ‘speak’ in my capacity as an armchair warrior!

Derek Reed,

Middlethorpe Drive,

York